Herbert Franklin Solow

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Contents

Solow was born to a Jewish family[2] in New York City.[1] After his graduation from Dartmouth College in 1953, Solow was hired by the William Morris Agency in New York City to work in the mailroom. In 1954, he was promoted to talent agent. Later he was hired by NBC and transferred to Los Angeles in 1960 and was subsequently hired by CBS as Director of Daytime Programs, West Coast. He returned to NBC a year later as Director of Daytime Programs.

Along with Robert H. Justman, he wrote Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, published by Pocket Books in 1996. According to Publishers Weekly, "As told by Solow, Star Trek's executive in charge of production, and Justman, Star Trek's co-producer, this is arguably the definitive history of the TV show...With plenty of behind-the-scenes material that will be of interest to Trek fans, this book puts a good deal of emphasis on the show's business side, elucidating production difficulties, cost overruns and the seemingly constant debate with NBC over the show's future." Although Solow is often credited with being the first to call Gene Roddenberry "The Great Bird of the Galaxy", drawn from one of George Takei's throwaway lines, as Mr Sulu, from the original series episode "The Man Trap", it was actually Robert Justman who coined the phrase. Solow thought the name was silly.[5]

He is married to Yvonne Fern Solow, (aka. Dr. Harrison Solow) who wrote the book, Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation (1994).[6][7] By 2005, Solow and his wife were living in south-west Wales, where he was a part-time lecturer at the media department of the then University of Wales, Lampeter, returning to Malibu in 2009. During her time at Lampeter, Solow became Writer-in Residence and learned Welsh.[8]